The Curse Of The Evil Tree
by ichangedmyname
Summary: The Spooksville kids accidentally ressurect an evil spirit. Now they have to stop it from turning the whole of Spooksville into zombies and taking over the world.
1. History

Mr Marshall droned on and on. His dull, monotone voice had become nothing but a low hum to Cindy. It was kind of soothing, in a way. Golden sunlight streamed in through the windows. Outside the breeze blew the first leaves of winter around in small spirals. It was quiet in the classroom, peaceful and warm. She could feel her eyes getting heavy, it was getting harder and harder to stay awake.

Cindy made a determined effort to concentrate. She was a good student. She got good grades, handed work in on time, was praised for her attentiveness. She certainly didn't fall asleep in class. But Mr Marshall was just so goddamn boring. She had tried to concentrate in his class, every Tuesday afternoon and Friday morning for the last three weeks, but now she could feel herself slipping. She tried to make sense of what he was saying. Something about history. Well that figured, it was a history class. Cindy pushed back a strand of her long blonde hair and looked down at her book, pen in hand. What had he said again? She wondered how her friends were doing. She looked around at Sally next to her. Sally stared into space, dead to the world. Her book was shut and she was absently doodling on the front cover.

"Cindy!" a voice broke into her thoughts. Cindy looked up. Mr Marshall stood in front of her. He didn't look happy.

"Miss Makey, can you please repeat what I just said?" he asked, exasperation in his voice

"Um... No" she admitted.

"I see. I've had to talk to you before about paying attention in class haven't I" he stated.

"Um....Yes?" she answered. She didn't remember, but then she never remembered much of Mr Marshall's class.

Mr Marshall fished a piece of paper from his pocket. "Detention on Saturday. Cindy Makey" he said aloud as he wrote.

"But its Saturday tomorrow!" she interrupted.

"I am aware of that Miss Makey, I am aware." he finished writing. "Here" he handed her the paper. "You'll have to get your parents to sign it and return it to me tomorrow morning." he walked to the front of the class and resumed his lecture. Cindy sighed, her parents weren't going to like this.

........................................................

Adam and Watch joined Cindy and Sally as they walked to lunch. As they walked through the corridors the girls filled them in on the mornings events.

"I have total sympathy for you" said Watch after they had finished, "Mr Marshall has to be the most boring person who has ever lived."

"Personally I'm not convinced he's human" added Sally.

"He could be a robot" Watch suggested.

"That makes no sense" Adam argued. "Who would make an incredibly boring robot schoolteacher?"

"Former teacher with a grudge against students?" guessed Sally.

"It could be" said Watch, "Weird stuff does tend to happen in this town."

They walked into the lunch room. It was crowded with students and filled with noise. They joined the end of a long queue for lunch.

"What I don't get is why he picked on me" said Cindy, "No-one in that classroom was paying attention." She turned to Sally "I mean what about you? At least I was making some effort to look like I was listening."

"I don't know Cindy" Sally replied, smiling. "I know you're used to being teachers pet but you've got to realise not everyone is going to appreciate your meagre charms."

Cindy gave her an irritated look, "I just don't think its fair. And my parents are going to kill me."

"Come on its not that big a deal" said Adam. "Its only a detention. And we've all had one right?" He looked around for confirmation.

"Oh sure" said Watch "Loads of them."

"Actually, no" said Sally, smirking.

"Great" said Cindy.

They reached the end of the queue. Sally stepped up to the counter and took a plate of grey mush with potatoes. "Actually" she said "You're right Cindy."

Cindy looked taken aback "Huh?"

"Why should you have to suffer alone for doing what everyone else was doing. I'm going to do the detention with you." She turned to look at the others. "Hey! Why don't we all do the detention together! It'll be fun" she said excitedly.

Adam considered the idea "Yeah" he said "that's a pretty good idea. What do you think Watch?"

"Why not" said Watch "Not like I have anything better to do on a Saturday."

"Oh thanks guys" Cindy smiled. "And this will make it much easier to tell my parents. I'll just say you guys got me into some kind of trouble."

"Great so that's settled then" said Watch. He looked at the pans of food on the counter. "Now all that's left is to decide between a plate of classic green unspecified or new improved yellow unspecified."

..................................................

They sat at the table, the majority of the group having decided to be daring and go for the bright yellow mush. Luckily it didn't taste as bad as it looked.

"So Cindy" said Sally "I hope you will be making an effort to avoid any more trouble with Mr Marshall. So have you started on your project yet?"

"What project?" Cindy asked.

"The project he told us about on Monday. The personal history thing."

"Oh....you know, I don't remember anything about it" said Cindy, looking anxious.

"Don't worry Cindy" said Watch reassuringly "I think Mr Marshall has an amnesiac affect on a lot of people."

"So what is the project?" asked Adam, the only one of the four who didn't have Mr Marshall as a history teacher.

"You have to do a study on an ancestor of yours" Sally explained "how they lived and the time and place they lived in."

"So have you started yet?" asked Adam.

"I have so many interesting ancestors I don't know who to pick" answered Sally. "I'll probably start tonight."


	2. Whisper In Time

That night Sally sat at her table, pen and pad in hand. "So mom, first question. Who's your favourite ancestor?"

Her mother stood by the oven. "Honey I really don't have time for this right now. I have to get the food on the table and then I have five minutes to get ready for work. Aren't you supposed to do your homework yourself?"

"Mom this is important. Come on you can talk as you cook."

"Why don't you do your project on your grandmother. She's led an interesting life."

"No she hasn't, she's just crazy and thinks she has. Besides I need someone further back in the past. Our family have lived in this town for generations. We must have some interesting ancestors."

Her mother turned around and looked at her, thinking. "Well there was this woman my mother used to tell me about when I was a child. Bernadette Allison, I think. She was a white witch. The townspeople burnt her of course."

"Really, that's great! Well not for her of course. So could she really cast spells?"

"I don't know. All I know is that she lived a couple of centuries ago, when the witch-hunts were in full swing. Oh, and we have her ashes! I had almost forgotten about that."

"Her ashes? Here?"

"In that metal jar above the fire place." She paused, thinking. "Well actually that was your grandmother who told me she was in there. So maybe that's not so reliable.

"Oh no," Sally shook her head "Grandmas a little odd but not crazy. She would know. So why do we have her ashes if she was burnt at the stake?"

"Well apparently she desperately wanted to be buried in the churchyard. But the townspeople wouldn't allow it. So after she was killed her family gathered up her ashes and brought them here, hoping that one day they would be allowed to bury them."

"That's so sad. But why haven't we buried the ashes?"

"I hadn't thought of it till now. Besides its probably just a story." Sally's mother looked at her watch. "Look honey I really have to go now. Can you finish getting the dinner ready?" She hurried out of the room.

"Ok" Sally stood up and walked over to the oven "Hey mom" she called after her mother, "Do you think if I scattered the ashes that would be ok? She'd be at peace then right?"

"I seriously doubt there are any ashes in that old jar." Her mother called from the top of the stairs. "But if you want to try then go ahead."

..............................................................

Adam pulled up on his bike outside the graveyard gates where Sally was stood, waiting.

"So do you want to tell me what this is about?" he said as he dismounted.

"I'll tell you as soon as the others get here. You did call them right?"

"Yeah" he answered, hiding his bike behind a bush so it wouldn't be visible from the road. He walked over to Sally and leaned back against the gates. Sally looked up and down the road impatiently.

"What's in the box?" he asked, noticing the silver box she was carrying.

"I'll tell you when everyone is here. I don't want to have to repeat myself" she said.

Adam turned around and looked through the gates, into the graveyard. There were streetlights where they stood but inside the graveyard was pitch black. After the adventures which he and his friends had experienced in Spooksville not much scared Adam. But a graveyard at midnight was still a little creepy. Especially the Spooksville graveyard. A mist hung over the ground. In the dark it looked like the graves went on forever, broken only by the occasional wizened old tree. The place had an aura of age and death.

Sally didn't seem affected by this. But then she had lived in this town a lot longer than Adam. " You'd think they'd be here by now" she said, breaking the silence. "Especially Watch. For a guy who wears four watches he's not so hot with his timekeeping."

"He probably stopped off at Cindy's house. She didn't seem to into wandering round a graveyard at midnight."

"Here they are!" Sally said. Adam looked down the road to see two familiar figures walking towards them.

When they were all together Sally told them about her ancestor and the ashes.

"So I figure we can scatter her ashes and then she'll finally be able to rest in peace" she finished, holding up the box.

"But why do we have to do it tonight, in the middle of the night?" said Cindy, looking around apprehensively.

"My ancestor has waited centuries for this and I don't see why she should have to wait a minute longer. Besides midnight is the witching hour."

"Fine" said Cindy "Lets just get it over with."

"That's the spirit" said Sally, opening the gates. They walked into the graveyard and Sally and Adam switched on the torches they had brought.

"Lets go over to that little hill in the centre" Sally said in a whisper that sounded loud in the dead quiet of the graveyard "that looks like as good a place as any."

They walked on through the graves. "Hey Sally, are you sure those are your ancestors ashes?" asked Watch. "Have you even checked that there are any ashes in there?"

"Of course I have". She opened the box and held her torch over it, revealing that it contained a fine grey powder. "And of course they're my ancestors. I mean who else would they be?"

"Well you said that was what your grandmother told your mother. And you know your grandmothers a little..."

"My grandmother is perfectly sane" Sally broke in, "Just because she has some odd habits."

They reached the centre of the graveyard, where a strange mound about two foot high protruded from the ground. Sally stood on the mound, the light breeze blowing her dark hair back from her face. "Ok here goes" she said. She looked at the others "What do I say?" she whispered.

They looked around at each other. "No idea" said Watch.

Sally opened the box and held it high above her head. "Bernadette Allison Wilcox I hereby transfer your ashes to these consecrated grounds. May you rest in peace!" She threw the ashes into the air. As she did so the breeze increased in strength and caught the ashes, blowing them straight ahead at a nearby tree.

Sally jumped down from the hill.

"Can we go now?" Cindy asked.

"Yeah lets go. This place is starting to give me the creeps." said Adam. They turned and walked out of the graveyard.


	3. Green Hell

The spirit was sucked into the world and had less than a second to prepare before it slammed into a living body. It used the last remnants of its magic to pull itself inside the creature and take over. Once inside it stretched, trying to acclimatise to life again after centuries of being trapped in the netherworld. This new body felt...odd. The spirit knew it wasn't the one who had released him, otherwise he would feel the surge of power immediately. He couldn't feel much. He could feel the breeze and that it was a cold night, and that was all. He was strangely unaware of his surroundings. He couldn't see, he couldn't hear. He tried to move and found he could not. This was strange, he had never experienced anything like this in taking a body before. Could he have entered a dead or dying body? No that was impossible. He would have sensed that immediately. This creature was definitely living. He felt stronger already in just the few minutes he had been part of its life force. He summoned power to himself and muttered the words of a simple spell. This should return his senses to him.

In a moment he was able to see around him. He was in a graveyard. It was night. He couldn't see the one who had summoned him but he could sense her presence close by. He would have to find her, but that was impossible right now. It didn't matter, he could wait, build up his power, get to know this strange new time he had been catapulted into. His hearing was coming back now and he could hear a strange hum, he had no idea what that was. There were other more familiar sounds too, somewhere an owl hooted and a mouse screeched, the wind moaned as it blew through the trees. He could feel but not move. The wind felt strange as it blew past his skin. Except it didn't feel like skin. He was higher off the ground than he had been as a human. He couldn't feel a heartbeat. He turned his vision around and looked back at himself. If he had been able to speak he would probably have muttered some ancient curse.

The groundskeeper looked at the tree. The tree looked back at the groundskeeper. This old oak had been planted in the ceremony long before the old man was born. Despite living here all his life the groundskeeper had never felt like a true citizen of Spooksville. He was a cynic and rejected the ghosts and superstitions which the rest of the citizens loved. And now a tree was talking to him.

"Its finally happened Marty" he said to himself "You've finally lost it."

He looked down at the shovel in his hands. At sixty years old he prided himself in not having lost his muscular physique, the only reason he could keep on doing his physically demanding job. That wouldn't mean anything if he was due for a trip to the funny farm. He loved his job and didn't want to lose it, especially not after the arguments he had had with his employers over his retirement. But they couldn't get rid of him, he was the only person in Spooksville who would work in the graveyard. When they advertised the position the only people who applied had wanted the job so they could conduct midnight seances, commune with the dead, that kind of thing. Most of Spooksvilles citizens avoided the graveyard like the plague. That was the way Marty liked it. Since his wife died ten years ago he hadn't wanted to see anyone else. He talked to her sometimes, in the graveyard. But that wasn't crazy, because she didn't talk back. Unlike some trees he could mention.

"Got to stop talking to myself" he mumbled. He glared at the oak "Damn tree."

"Damn you, old man" the tree said back clearly.

"What?" Marty asked despite himself.

"Nevermind" said the tree "I have a proposition to make."

"Who's there" Marty asked, looking suspicious, he made a round of the tree, checking behind it.

"Satisfied?" asked the tree.

"That you're a talking tree? Hell no!" Marty said, looking closely at the tree. He muttered something about microphones.

"You waste time, human" the tree said impatiently "I need your help, to procure me a new body. In return I offer you riches and power beyond your dreams. Are you listening to me?" the tree shouted as Marty walked away.

"Goddamn talking trees, I knew it was a bad idea to use wood polish at night." He looked back over his shoulder. He could have sworn the tree waved one of its branches at him angrily. He walked back to his house at the edge of the graveyard, ignoring the cries of the oak tree behind him.

"So you're back" said the tree.

Marty took a deep breath. Having thought it over he was pretty sure he wasn't going insane. He stood in front of the tree. "So you're a..." he looked as though his next words were very difficult for him to say "a magic tree, right?"

"Yes, for now" said the tree "though I am actually a human. When I lived my name was Edward Kingswood. I was skilled in the use of voodoo and other magics. I was imprisoned in a jar by a vengeful witch for, I estimate, two hundred years. Earlier this night I was released from this prison and took possession of this tree."

"Well that explains a lot."

"And now I require you too find the one who released me, that I may possess this soul and have the power to take over the world."

"Right... and why should I do that?"

"I doubt you would have come here unless there was something I could offer you."

"Yes. You know a lot of magic. Voodoo, that's good." He paused.

"Yes?" said the tree.

"I want you to bring my wife back."

"Back from where?"

"The dead."

"Oh. Hmm... yes, I can do that. No problem. Just bring me the one who released me and you will have your wife back."

"Why can't you do it now?"

"I don't have enough power now. When I have control of the world I'll have enough power."

"Alright, so who released you?"

"I do not know her name. It was a young girl."

"There are lots of young girls in Spooksville and I don't know any of them."

"It is no matter. I do not require you to find her. I shall do that myself. I only require you to take me to a place where there are many people. A town square maybe?"

"How about the shopping mall? It's always full of people."

"Fine, we must go there now."

"But it's the middle of the night. There wont be anyone there."

"When do people gather there?"

"Well it opens at nine. In the morning" he clarified.

"Then we shall go then. And so will begin my plan to take over the world." The tree laughed an evil laugh.


End file.
